John 6:24-35

After the feeding of the five-thousand, the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, so they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.  When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”  Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.  Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”  Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”  So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?  Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

The musical “Fiddler On the Roof” was on TV three nights ago and I just had to watch.  I love the scene where Motel, the poor, shy Tailor goes to Tseitel’s father, Tevye, to ask for her hand in marriage.  And Motel finally works up the courage to say, “Reb Tevye, I hear you are arranging a match for Tzeitel. Well, I have a match for Tzeitel.”

And Tevye says, “Huh?  What kind of a match?”

“A perfect fit.  This match was made exactly to measure.

“Perfect fit? Made to measure?

“Yes, Reb Tevye.  Like a glove.

“Motel, stop talking like a tailor and tell me, who is it?

“Who is it?”

“Who is it?”

“Who is it?”

“Who is it?!”

“It’s me.  Reb Tevye. Myself.”

“Either you’re out of your mind or you are crazy!

Arranging a match for yourself?  What are you?

Everything?  The bridegroom, matchmaker, and guests

in one?  I suppose you’ll perform the ceremony, too?”

Have you ever experienced a conversation like this?  Where by the end of it you realize the two of you were actually talking about two entirely different things? This is exactly what happens in today’s gospel story. The people miss what, or who Jesus is talking about.

Previously Jesus gave the crowds “dinner and a show”.  He multiplied loaves and fishes, everyone was fed, and now they’re eager to follow Jesus… that is, “only if you show us that trick with the bread again.”  The dialogue in this gospel story sounds a little like slapstick:

“Jesus, when did you get here?”

“You’re only here for the free food, not to see me.”

“No, really we’re here to see you….do….that….work of God with the bread.”

“But, I am that work of God.”

“No, we mean like the Manna, Bread-from-Heaven thing… (You know?  It’s in the Bible!”)

“But, I am the bread from heaven!”

“Yes!  Finally.  That’s it.  That’s what we want.”

But they don’t want Jesus.  They want, what my friend Father John calls “Jesus: the perpetual pasta machine”.  They want what Jesus can do for them, but they don’t want Jesus, himself.  Imagine that your lover lives on the other side of the United States.  Its your birthday, and for your birthday, your Beloved flies in to surprise you and says,

“I’m here, happy birthday!”

“Oh, well what’d you get me?”

“I’m here, I flew across the U.S. to surprise you!”

“Okay, so where’s my present?”

“It’s me.”

“Huh.  That’s disappointing.  You could have at least brought me a sandwich or a magic trick or something.”

This is a penetrating question that Jesus asks of us:  “What do we want out of God?”

Are we simply consumers of religion?  Do we want Jesus to simply strengthen our side?  Or are we being wooed into a relationship

with this invisible God whose love for us is made known in Jesus Christ?  Here’s one of the things that I love about Jesus, he refuses to take sides, meaning he wont let us make this into a liberal proclamation that says, “The primary message of this story is that God wants you to feed the world and end hunger, because the goal of Christianity is to alleviate suffering.”  Nor will he let us make this into a Charismatic proclamation that says, “The primary message of this story is that God wants you to believe enough to perform and receive miracles, because the goal of Christianity is signs and wonders.”  Instead, Jesus is relentlessly Christo-centric in his proclamation, and says, “God is at work in you to see me at the core of all things and want me alone.  The result of this is worship – a life of worship that might flowers into feeding the hungry and miraculous provision.  But works and wonders are not at the heart of this message.  I am.”

A couple verses later in this Gospel Jesus tries to really lay it out for the crowd by saying, ”You’re looking for signs, you’re looking for bread -

but I am giving myself to you.  I am what you need to eat to give you life!”  This was just way too weird for them and like Tevye, the crowd says to Jesus, ”Either you’re out of your mind or you’re crazy!”  Most all of them leave except the disciples.

It’s hard to blame them.  When you compare today’s story to the feeding of the five-thousand, where everyone is amazed and everyone gets fed and there’s still bread left over, well, today’s story is rather anti-climactic, because in this story Jesus says:  ”You want a miraculous sign that God is working, but the sign that God is at work is me – myself.  You can see that I’m at work in your life, because you trust me.  And that trust that you trust me with is actually God at work in you.  And you want God to provide for you, but the provision that God makes is me – myself.

And we want to say, “What are you?  Everything Jesus?”  And he says to us, “Yes!  Yes.  I am everything.  And it’s a perfect fit, made to measure, like a glove. Now, is it enough for you that I offer my entire self for you on the cross? Is it enough for you that I offer my self to you here in bread and wine? Because it’s here on the cross, here in bread and wine that you see that I am for you, that I love you, and that I am with you always.”

If only we could respond, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

Immediately I hit reply and wrote,
“I am so excited by your question, because not many people know about this!   The
‘She’ I was referring to is God, the Holy Spirit, because in the Old Testament the Spirit is
often referred to as “she”.  There are a slew of feminine metaphors used in the New and
Old Testaments, like a birthing mother, a nursing mother, lady wisdom, a hen with chicks… and several others, but
the Church has often excluded any femininity from our talk of God, with the underlining
tone that the male gender is superior to the female, and as if both genders were not
equally made in God’s image.  Historically, the Church has been primarily run by men, often times
to the severe detriment and dishonoring of women.
So, at Beloved, we feel like Jesus has called us to be different from the world in this
regard.  Including these biblical images helps us better know God and affirm God’s love
and image within all women.  This is the amazing thing that the Apostle Paul said happens
in baptism because of Jesus – that “there is no longer jew nor greek (which is ethnic equality)
there is no longer slave nor free (which is economic equality) there is no longer female nor
male (which is gender equality) – we are one in Jesus Christ.”  Isn’t that good news!
So that’s the reason for the “She”.  It’s not a hard and fast rule at our church, just
something that pops up as we continue to understand God’s love for the world because of
Jesus.  Thanks for having the courage to ask your question.  What do you think?  — Ryan

Well, I might have said a little too much in my email.  She never wrote back.  But what is it that scares us so much… not just men, but both men and women?  What scares us about the very biblical understanding of “God, our Mother?”  What do we lose by placing this feminine language from the Bible along side the masculine language that is already familiar to us?  What would it mean for you to envision God as your Mother?  To “try on”, as it were, the name Mother or Mom or even an equivalent to “Abba”, the name “Mommy” as you call out to God in the quietness of your heart… even right now as you are reading this?  And what might you have to gain by envisioning God as your Mother?  I want to say, you stand to gain a new imagination for God’s loving strength!

Whoever started this business about females being “the weaker sex” has never witnessed the raw strength of a mother, has never witnessed, as I have, a woman, who after laboring with steady contractions for 58 hours, squats on the ground, flexes all her core muscles together and pushes a human being into the world.  Now this is extreme strength; this is creation!

Whoever started this business about females being “the weaker sex” has never watched, as I have, while at the San Diego beach, a mother, who after turning her back for only a second turns back around to see that her toddler has fallen into a water way, then with super human strength and speed, extends her entire body out over a railing and draws her child out of the water using only one arm.  Now this is extreme strength; this is a mother’s rescue!

Whoever started this business about females being “the weaker sex” has obviously never been hiking in the mountains and encountered a mother bear with young cubs nearby. Watch out!  Hands down I would rather find Papa bear sleeping in my bed, because a mother will defend her young with the strength of many, many men.  Now this is extreme strength; this is a mother’s protection!

And who ever started this business about females being “the weaker sex” knows nothing about the strength of tenderness, the strength of a mother holding and rocking her fussing, crying, colicky, un-pacifiable baby in the middle of the night when she’d like nothing more than to lock him out in the car and get some sleep.  Now that is extreme strength; that is a mother’s compassion.

So when I invite you to envision God, not only as our Father, but as our Mother, I am talking about an incredible strength, a mothering strength that makes us, and rescues us, protects us, and nurtures us.

And some of you have had a mother like that who is in no way perfect, but what she has offered you is a taste of God’s love, the Mothering nature of our God.  And this taste of God’s love has shaped you and marked you in ways that you are only now beginning to discover.  And when you hear these descriptions of tender strength, they call to your mind snapshots of your own mother, or the woman in your life that mothered you.

Take a minute to give thanks to God for her now, for this thanks-giving is an act of worship because, ultimately, all of our thanks leads back to God.  Open the door for gratitude to fill your heart as you remember your mother: sacrificing for you, spending time with you, loving you, protecting you from harm.  Even from before you can remember, when you were a little baby this woman loved you.  Now let your prayer go from “thank you”, to “thank God for you”, to “thank you, God”.

For some of you, when you hear these descriptions of mothers it doesn’t bring back any fond memories of your own.  And maybe even the complete opposite.  Some of you have had mothers who have suffered from severe depression, Bi-polar, or boarder line disorders, which dramatically colored your childhood and into adulthood.  Maybe you have a mother who only knows how to create a closeness with you by disagreeing, or fighting, or manipulating…  or maybe she doesn’t try to create closeness at all, but seems to sabotage every pursuit that you make towards her.  And maybe she learned it from her mother?

Take a minute to let just a little bit of sadness in to where you normally lock that sadness out.  To think of what you may have missed in your childhood,  to see what that jealous feeling you get when you thought of people around you giving thanks for their mothers might have to say to you.  Allow that little bit of sadness to morph into the words, “God, I need you to Mother me.  I may not even know what it’s like to be mothered.  Will you show me?  God, I want to know you as Mother.”

Throughout the Bible, God is described as compassionate and in the original language of the Old Testament, in Hebrew, it’s the word “raham”, which is also the word for “womb.”  That means that you have a compassionate God, a “womb-like” God, a God who wants to “womb” you and surround you on all sides with care and protection.  The Gospel of John tells us that Children of God are not born, but re-born.  It is the Spirit who does the birthing and the pains of child birth look like this:  Jesus, “who for the sake of the joy set before him endured the cross” – giving life to us.

Every day belongs to God, including this one.  Happy Mother’s Day God!